


Rust.

by BarPurple



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Future, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-02
Packaged: 2018-01-21 15:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1554911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifteen years after the final battle of Sunnydale Buffy returns and remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rust.

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, so the saying goes. It was a concept that she’d never given much thought to. History wasn’t something that individual Slayers had in huge amounts. Collectively the story of the Slayer stretched back to the dawn of time, but the past was the domain of the Watchers, the Slayer lived and died in the moment.

That was how it used to be, before the Last Guardian of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. Everything changed on the day of that final battle. There is no longer the Slayer, now we are the Slayers; many instead of one. It makes us stronger, but only if we remember the road we travelled to get here. We have to remember that for everything we gained we lost so very much. That’s why we make sure you all visit this place at least once. Walk around, take some time; this is your history so learn from it.

The group broke up and began to explore the site. In twos and threes the younger Slayers approached those who had survived Sunnydale’s final hours. They had questions to ask and tales they needed to hear. Although more than a few sly glances came her way nobody approached Buffy Summers. Willow had made it clear that Buffy would talk to them later, but for now she was to be left alone.

It had been nearly fifteen years since Buffy had stood in this place. She’d thought time had dimmed the memories, but it was all coming back to her now. The noise; the stench; the fear and finally the dizzying shock that comes with being alive to see another sunrise. For an instant she was overwhelmed by the physical force of memory. She reached out a hand to steady herself on the chain link fence that surrounded the crater of her old home. She could feel the rust break off in her hand and that brought her back to the moment. Clenching her fist around the ochre flakes that clung to her palm she smiled. Willow was right, their history needed to be remembered and the lesson learned that together they were stronger than any of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt - http://putthepromptsonpaper.tumblr.com/post/84451847156/she-could-feel-the-rust-break-off-in-her-hand


End file.
